The Perfect Date

• 14 mini cream puffs
• 1 giant molasses clove cookie
• 1 Reeses BIG cup
• 2 large McDonald's french fries
• 1 liter of 7-Up for me
• 2 liter of Coke for Jared
• Romantic comedy movie
• AND... baby asleep in crib

Perfect.

Twins of a Different Kind

Have you ever thought about your twin family? Somewhere out there is that other family with exactly the same names. Come on, some where in this wide world there has to be another couple named Jared and Naomi, and they have a daughter named Sophia. This is a big world. I wonder where they live? What they are like? If they truly exist. Are they African? European? Australian? Or do they live two blocks over? I don't have much hope of ever meeting our twin family. Twin famlies are really good at hiding.

Now, of course, I am talking about something completely different than name twins. Name twins are much easier to find. In fact, when we lived in Richfield several years ago, my dad found his name twin. He only lived 4 blocks away, and they kept getting eachothers mail! Small world? Well in the area of name twins, yes.

Have you ever found your name twin? Or even more impressively, your twin family?

I'm Tired

I am tired.

Sophia, Poppy and I are all contributing to my fatigue.

Sophia= Sicky bear. She has been having a rough couple of days (and nights), and has been my Little Miss Crankypuss. She frequently awakens at night. Yesterday, she was fighting off her cold big time and ended up sleeping ALL DAY, and so last night was playtime. :(

Poppy= Need I even explain how Poppy is contributing? I am growing a human. Enough said.

Me= We are moving. In two days. I have been staying up all night with Sophia. Packing. Organizing. Labeling. Cooking. Cleaning. Blogging. It takes a lot out of ya.

I am very excited to move, and be done with it. I look forward to being settled in at Gary's for the year, and not having to think about packing anymore! I hate moving. It is a lot of work. Especially while also caring for a 4 month old, and brewin' another. So, yes, I am tired. Caffeine would be my best friend, but not Poppy's, and my devotion lies with me kids.

Okay. I am done whining.

Thankfully, Cara and Josh are stocking us up on boxes, and Mom and Dad are coming to help us pack this weekend. Yipee! Thank goodness for friends and family!

Our Family Valentines

Daddy knows how to treat his girls on Valentines Day!

He surprised both his girls with beautiful flowers (see Sophia's? She is holding hers so nice!)

Sophia is showing me her pretty flower from daddy.

Sophia is such a big girl and holding her pretty flower so nice. She said is smells really yummy too, but does not taste very good.

Sophia wanted her flower tucked into her long, flowing locks. Then she wanted to help me display my flowers for Daddy! Such a little woman already;)

Poppy

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Lexus Shmexus PART II

When we bought the car, we were getting 21 mpg (according to the digital display in our luxury vehicle). Over the past 9 months, that number has slowly been declining. It is now at 17.6 mpg. Jared has also been noticing a rather disturbing increase in oil consumption. So we brought it in to have it diagnosed. They gave her an oil change, and filled 'er up, then told us to come back in 1,000 miles to see how much oil we had lost. When we came back, the oil wasn't even registering on the dipstick anymore (their oil changes are guaranteed for 5,000 miles)! They dug around in the engine and came back to us with the report that we should replace the short block (the heart of the engine) and that it would only cost us $9,500 (about how much we still owe on it)!!!

Now, hold up. This is a frickin' LEXUS that has 73,000 miles, and an impecable service history? You're serious? There is NO WAY the engine should be bad. We are not paying for that. You should, Lexus. You stand behind your name? Stand behind it now and deal with this. Their only suggestion was to call corporate Lexus and see what they would do for us. That call began the biggest game of pingpong (us being the ball) I have ever played. Jared called one guy and they would tell him he had to call this girl. He would call that girl, and she said it wasn't her decision and he should call this guy. Back and forth, on and on for three weeks now. Finally last week, Jared gathered names and phone numbers of managers and manager's managers. He made at least a dozen phone calls. Nothing. So we stopped by Lexus to confront them face to face. Once again, they told him it was not their decision. He did, however, finally find out whose decision it was, and called her. After three calls, and an email from the Maplewood service manager, this lady finally called Jared back and said they were reviewing the case and she would DEFINATELY call in two days. That was over a week ago. She has promised to call three times now, and has never yet called.

Somehow this blows just about everything Wikipedia said in the description of Lexus.
Reliablilty? What's that?
Dependability? I don't think so!
Customer service? YEAH RIGHT.

Lexus Shmexus

Lexus:
Since its debut in 1989, Lexus has developed a reputation for the luxury and reliability of its vehicles, along with the quality of its customer service. In 2007, consumer ratings firm J.D. Power and Associates named Lexus the most reliable brand in the U.S. based on its Vehicle Dependability Survey, a measure of over 53,000 vehicle owners and the problems they experienced in the first three years of vehicle ownership. It was the thirteenth consecutive year that Lexus achieved this top rating. In recent years, Consumer Reports has also named Lexus among the top five most reliable brands in its Annual Car Reliability Surveys of over one million vehicles nationwide. -Wikipedia

These were the expectations we held when we researched cars every single day for TWO MONTHS last year. We even subscribed to Consumer Reports to get their take on who was making the most reliable car. Jared wanted to buy a car that would run for years to come, give us minimal problems, be very reliable, and very safe for baby and me. Lexus fit the bill in every way. We heard stories from people and the amazing qualities of a Lexus. Consumer Reports gave us rave reviews. Co-workers firmly stood behind the Lexus name. We were sold. So we bought our very own amazing Lexus. We were so sold on Lexus that Jared even flew to Michigan to pick it up, and drive it home. We bought a beautiful RX300, with 63,000 miles on it and a sparkling clean service history. We bought it from an older couple, so we assume it was treated pretty well. This car was perfect. Every oil change had been done at a Lexus dealership. The service history records couldn't be cleaner.

We have owned it now for 9 months. We have brought it in to the dealership for two oil changes in that time, and have always been blown away by the customer service. There is a lounge to wait in while your car is being worked on, complete with free coffee, juice, cappiccino, soda, cookies, donuts, granola bars, magazines, internet, telephones, a large fire place, tables, couches, a flat screen TV, and a child's playroom. Very impressive, right?

TO BE CONTINUED...

On the Move

Jared and I made a big decision recently. We are moving. That's not even the "big" part! Here it is: we are keeping our place in Hugo as a rental property and moving back in with Gary for a year. With this plan in action, we will be able to pay off all our debt very quickly (with the extra income from renting out the house) and within one year, be in a position to buy a new (hopefully larger) home! I am pretty excited to embark on this new adventure. It is all going to happen fast too. We are planning to be out of the house by March 1st. Then we are going to take the month of March to fix everything up and make is sparkle. It will be ready for renters April 1st!

Our Upscale Ghetto

We live in a nice development, in a nice little growing community. All the houses are new. Everything looks polished and clean (thanks association). The yards are trimmed in the summer. The sidewalks are cleared in the winter. But it just so happens that the street we live on is the ghetto of this nice little growing community. I walked out of my pretty little kitchen this afternoon, and glanced through my pretty little bay window. My eyes were greeted by what is becoming a familiar sight-- a police car parked across the street. Remember last May when our cozy little ghetto was swarming with cops when they busted the meth lab? That was only one of the six times the police have visited our ghetto in the last year. Know what? The heart of the ghetto lives across the street. Know what else? We live in a garage-door community. I have only seen 5 of our 16 neighbors in the past year-and-a-half that we've lived here. I have never even SEEN whom else lives in these houses surrounding us. I guess that's okay. You don't want to make too many friends in the ghetto.

Sleep Walking

Sophia has been doing GREAT sleeping in her crib. I think I am still adjusting though...

It was 12:30 AM, and I was tucked snuggly under a bed of warmth, when my super-radar-mom-ears perked up. Was that a whimper I heard? Better go check. I unwrapped myself from the tangle of blankets and flew out of bed. I carefully creaked open the door of the nursery and peeked inside. There lay my angel, sleeping soundly, not moving a muscle. Now this is the point when I ease the door shut again, and go nestle back into my nest, right? Wrong. Instead, I open the door farther, slip through the crack, and plunk down in the rocking chair. I begin to rock back and forth, and look at my little girl, confused. I just know I heard her cry and now she looks so peaceful. I better wait in case she wakes up. So I continue to rock, back and forth, back and forth. After about ten minutes of this foolishness, I awake from my stupor and realize I am in the nursery. What am I doing here? Why am I not in my cozy bed? I check the baby. Baby is fine.


Dumb.


That's the last thought I have as I trudge back to my room.